Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart DS abbreviated to MKDS or MK:DS, is a Nintendo DS racing game developed and published by Nintendo. It is the fifth installment in the Mario Kart series and the first to use Nintendo's free online service, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game was released in 2005. It was well received critically, scoring an average of 91% from Metacritic. Many reviewers have called it the best Mario Kart game in the series. Like other games in the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart DS involves various characters from various Mario games racing each other in go-karts on tracks themed from locations in the Mario series, less realistic physics, and the use of various weapons and or items to achieve victory differentiates kart racing games like Mario Kart DS ''from more realistic racing games. Gameplay In Grand Prix mode, the player competes against seven computer-controlled racers. There are two types of Grand Prix in ''Mario Kart DS, each consisting of four cups, and each cup consisting of four race tracks. Nitro GP contains sixteen brand new tracks while Retro GP contains sixteen tracks converted from previous entries in the Mario Kart series. There are three engine classes which serve as difficulty levels for the Grand Prix mode: 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. The higher the engine class, the faster all the karts go. A 150cc Mirror Mode is also an unlockable, in which all the 150cc tracks are flipped horizontally, as if seeing the game in a mirror. Another staple of past Mario Kart games, Battle Mode, also makes a return. Battle modes include Balloon Battle, in which you try to pop everyone else's balloons by attacking them or steal them with mushrooms and eliminate them, or Shine Runners, in which you try to collect the most Shine Sprites. Eventually, players with the least amount of Shine Sprites will be eliminated from the game. Items also appear in the DS sequel. There are old items such as Bananas and Green Shells. There are also new Items such as Blooper and Bullet Bill. In the new Mission Mode, players control a specific character in that character's standard kart, and must perform eight individual missions, whose objectives range from collecting coins to attacking enemies. Players are then ranked based on their performance, and given either an E, D, C, B, A, or one to three stars if the task is completed by a certain time. In order to advance to the next level, players must complete a "boss" task, which is unlocked after all eight of a level's missions are completed. Completing all missions in level 1 through 6 with at least a 1 star rating on each mission opens up a secret 7th level with more challenging missions to complete. It should be noted that there are no missions where one of the unlockable characters is playable. In Time Trial Mode, players try to finish a course in as short a time as possible. While racing, the top screen of the Nintendo DS displays a third-person perspective behind and slightly above the player's vehicle. The bottom screen lists the current race standings, items carried by each player, and a map of the course. The map can be toggled to show an overall view of the entire course, or a close-up view of the racer's immediate vicinity. The close-up view is very detailed, showing nearby racer positions, course hazards, item boxes, and even incoming attacks. Each playable character starts out with two karts: one special kart unique to that character, and a standard kart resembling a real go-kart. These karts have slightly different stats, although their general strengths are the same. As a player progresses through the game, he or she can unlock a third special kart for each character, also with slightly different stats. Ultimately, the player can unlock the ability to use any of the 36 total karts with any character. When a player is selecting their kart for a race, the game lists the kart's max speed, acceleration, weight, handling, drifting ability, and the quality of items the kart is likely to receive. Each course features numerous item boxes that players can drive through to receive a randomly-selected item. Whichever item the player receives is generally dependent upon their current position in the race and, to a lesser extent, the item stat of the player's kart; Players near the front will tend to receive rear-attack items, while players trailing in the back of the race will tend to receive more powerful items. Most attack items can be targeted forwards or backwards by holding the appropriate direction on the D-pad when using the item against other. New items like Bullet Bill transformation have also been added in the game. Mini-Turbos, a feature first introduced in Mario Kart Double Dash, returns in Mario Kart DS. Mini-Turbos are momentary speed boosts that can be obtained while drifting. Also featured in Mario Kart DS and not to be confused with drifting is the ability to draft behind an opponent's kart. If the player is close enough, white streaks will start flying by their kart, and their speed will begin to increase. If the player maintains this position long enough, they will receive a noticeable speed boost, allowing them to easily overtake and pass the opponent. Using a simple drawing program interface, a player can create a customized emblem. During the race, each player's emblem appears as a decal on their kart, and in multi-player matches, opponents can see the player's name and emblem prominently overlaid above their kart's position on the opponent's screen. The player's emblem is also, on Wi-Fi play, shown to their opponents once the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection has found opponents and initiated a match. Wi-Fi Multiplayer This normally includes only 20 racing tracks and only the VS. racing mode. Multi-Card Multiplayer If each member of a group has a Nintendo DS and a copy of Mario Kart DS, it is possible to race in Multi-Card mode. All of the game's characters and tracks are available, and Battle mode can be selected for multiplayer. With the Mario Kart DS demo available from Volume 1 of DS Download Station, only Multi-Card Multiplayer mode is available. Although no physical game is used, each player must download the demo from the Station. Once this is finished, VS. mode can be accessed for play on the Figure 8 Track and SNES Mario Circuit 1 track. Only differently-coloured Shy Guys are available as characters, some which will be controlled by the computer for games with less than eight human players. Single-Card Multiplayer Single-Card Multiplayer mode allows racing for up to eight players with one DS-compatible console per player and only one copy of Mario Kart DS. The first player selects the game's Multiplayer mode, while the others select "DS Download Play" on their handheld. Only eight tracks are available in this mode: those of the Mushroom Cup and those of the retro Shell Cup. All players are differently-coloured Shy Guys. Racers There are 13 characters in Mario Kart DS, ten are from previous Mario Kart games and three of them are new to the series, which are Dry Bones, Shy Guy, and R.O.B. However, Shy Guy is not directly playable, and you can only play as him by doing a simple multiplayer match and downloading off someone else using Download Play. Shy Guy is also the only CPU player in the Mario Kart Nintendo DS Download Kiosk demo, available from version 1 of the USA kiosk, however the player will race against 7 differently colored Shy Guys at once in the single player mode. Default racers * Mario (Medium) * Luigi (Medium) * Peach (Light) * Toad (Light) * Yoshi (Light) * Bowser (Heavy) * Donkey Kong (Heavy) * Wario (Heavy) Unlockable racers *Daisy (Medium) *Dry Bones (Light) *Waluigi (Medium) *R.O.B. (Heavy) Download Play racers * Shy Guy (Light) Tracks This is the second game in the Mario Kart series to have retro tracks in addition to never-before seen tracks, the first game being Mario Kart: Super Circuit which featured all 20 tracks from Super Mario Kart. Original Retro Items *Banana Peel/Triple Banana *Green Shell/Triple Green Shell *Red Shell/Triple Red Shell *Blue Shell *Fake Item Box *Star *Lightning Bolt *Boo *Blooper (new) *Bullet Bill (new) *Mushroom *Triple Mushroom *Golden Mushroom *Bob-omb Karts and Stats There are thirty-six karts in'' Mario Kart DS''. They are classified based on six stats which are: *'Speed:' Speed determines how fast the player's kart will go. *'Acceleration:' Acceleration determines how much time it will take for the kart to reach its full speed. *'Weight: '''Weight determines how well it will withstand getting pushed or how far it can push others. *'Handling: Handling shows how well the kart can turn without drifting. *'Drift: '''Drift shows how tight the player's kart will drift. *'Items: 'Items show how many mushrooms the player will have in Time Trials (one, two, or three). Obstacles and Hazards ''Mario Kart DS has obstacles in almost every course which are: *'''Boxes: You'll find wooden boxes throughout the game. Once you crash into a box, it will explode, making you stop, plus, sometimes an item will come out of one once you crash into it. *'Cheep-Cheep': Cheep-Cheeps are swimming around in the water, so its easy to dodge them since you usually don't have to go there. *'Crab': You will finds crabs on Cheep Cheep Beach, if you run into one, you will suddenly start to spin around for a couple of seconds. This could tragically put you in last place on the account that they are near the end of the level. *'Monty Mole': You will find Monty Moles on multiple courses such as Peach Gardens. You will see small holes in the ground, sometimes, Monty Moles will pop out of the holes and try to spin you out. *'Piranha Plant': Piranha Plants will appear in a couple of courses. They will pop out of their pipe, then try to spit out fire balls at you. *'Pokey': You'll find Pokies on the Desert Hills track. They will be swaying back and forth in one spot. If you crash into one, you'll fly in the air and come back down to the ground, putting off a few seconds of the racing time. *'Rocky Wrench': You'll find Rocky Wrenches on the Airship Fortress stage. On this stage, the moles will pop out of the sewers on the ship. Though they don't throw wrenches at you like they do in Super Mario Bros 3, you can still be harmed if you run into them. *'Chain Chomp': You'll find it in GCN Luigi Circuit and Peach Gardens. When you get close at it, it will run up to you and bark you. *'Podoboo': You'll find it in the Desert Hills track. In the second round, the sun will spit them, what they do, is that they jump arround and try to burn you. *'Flamethrowers': You'll find them the tracks Airship Fortress and Bowser's Castle. *'Bullet Bill': You'll fin them in Airship Fortress. They go in one direction to hit you. *'Pin-Ball pins, balls and the bouncy thingys': You'll find them in Waluigi Pinball. *'Bats': You'll find them in N64 Banshee Boardwalk. Emblems This is the newest feature of the game. An emblem is a decal or picture that appears as a sort of symbol for someone on their kart. The emblem appears only on certain places on a kart, and depending on where it is put, the emblem may be smaller, bigger and/or stretched out. The player also has the ability to choose from various patterns ranging from a Starman to Thunderbolt and also the shape of Mario's face. The player also can choose not to use a custom emblem and to use an original emblem already designed for the a character. The player might do this if he/she has an unfinished emblem that they don't want others to see. Emblems are displayed during VS matches and in online matches on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Trivia *In the American version of the game, R.O.B is green and brown and has the name FR, or better know as Famicom Robot, is the original Japanese version of R.O.B. Additionally, R,O.B is the true staff ghost on Waluigi Pinball and Bowser Castle, not F.R (thus the * in the table above). R.O.B has the same karts as F.R, even down to the same coloration. *Mario Kart Slot Cars were created as a promotion for this game. *During the race when a character gets the item box, the item-roulette sound effect stop selection was "Blah". The item-roulette sound effect carries over to Mario Kart Wii. *When players play Mario Kart DS on different DS systems, Mario's title dialogue will change. When playing on an original DS, he will say "Wahoo!", but on DS Lite/DSi, he will say "Here we go!". *The American version of Mario Kart DS is one of the earliest games on the DS to have a multiple language option (almost all European DS games have this function, though). Depending on the language of the DS, the language on the game will change; however, it will not change into Japanese. *Mario Kart DS is one of the first games to be released that was compatible with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, allowing players to go online and race against other users around the world. *A player's overall game ranking (*, **, or *** stars, if achieved) will appear next to his or her name online while racing. *'Mario Kart: Super Circuit tie-in': When the Nintendo DS is turned on with "Mario Kart DS" in Slot 2 and "Mario Kart: Super Circuit" in Slot 3, "Super Circuit" is listed as an "Option Pack" and cannot be played. Users have yet to discover if and how this effects "Mario Kart DS". Tie-ins With Other Games *Super Mario Kart*: MKDS features the bottom map screen from Super Mario Kart *Mario Kart 64**: MKDS features 3D tracks that first started in Mario Kart 64 *Mario Kart Super Circuit*: MKSC and MKDS were made for a portable system *MKSC(Continued): MKSC and MKDS both have the Lightning Cup and Retro Courses *Mario Kart Double Dash**: MKDD and MKDS both feature unlockable charecters *Mario Kart Wii: MKDS and Mario Kart Wii both feature retro courses *Mario Kart 7: MKDS and MK7 both are for a portable system and they feature the bottom screen map *MK7(Continued): MKDS and MK7 both have retro courses *These games have retro tracks on MKDS **These games have retro tracks and retro battle courses on Mario Kart DS. Critic Reviews *''Mario Kart DS'' still maintains a 9.2 average at Gamestats, #1 on the Nintendo DS (as of 15:40, 22 December 2006 (EST)). *Gamespy reviewer Bryn Williams admitted that online, Nintendo "trimmed it back a little too much for my liking", but was certain that "Even with a few online flaws, this is the best Mario Kart ever.." (5/5; Multiplayer: Great) *Gamespot reviewer Justin Calvert had similar quips with the online feature: "Whether these opponents were leaving voluntarily or because of network problems is anybody's guess, but it's equally irritating either way." Yet, he finished up similarly by saying "Mario Kart DS is without a doubt one of the best games to hit the Nintendo DS to date." (9.2/10; Gamespot Editor's Choice; DS Game of the Year) *IGN reviewer Craig Harris commented that "it's just hard to ignore just how limited the online presentation is." But again, his closing line was this: "The only way to finish this review is just to say it: this is the greatest Mario Kart game ever developed, and is without a doubt the best DS game of 2005." (9.5/10; IGN Editor's Choice Award; DS Game of the Year) Scores received in the major gaming review sites: * Gamerankings - 93% * Gamespot - 9.2/10 * IGN - 9.5/10 * Joystiq - 9.0/10 * Nintendo Power - 9.0/10 External Links *The Official Mario Kart DS Website Category:Games Category:Mario Kart DS Category:Games on Handheld Consoles Category:Mario Kart Category:Mario Kart Games Category:Nintendo DS Category:DS